The present invention relates to healthcare beds and, more particularly, to manually adjustable mechanical beds and accessories therefore.
A wide variety of manually adjustable, multi-position beds are presently available. Such beds may be used in hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities. A typical hospital bed includes a mattress frame divided into a plurality of sections. The frame may include a head section, a seat section and a leg or foot section. The sections are positionable so that the patient may be moved from a flat, resting position to a raised, seated position where the patient's back is moved upwardly and the legs may be bent.
One drawback when using manually adjustable beds is the problem of providing the means for the occupant, rather than an attendant, to easily operate the pivotal action of the bed. Typically, if a patient desires to move the bed to a specific position, the patient would be required to operate position controls which are used by the attendant. These controls are generally located at one or both ends of the bed, which might require the patient to either leave the bed entirely or assume an awkward position. Obviously, in many situations, this is not possible for the occupant and would require an attendant to be present when the bed position needs to be adjusted.
It is also required that some type of device be placed along the edge of the bed in order to keep the occupant from falling or rolling from the mattress of the bed. This device is usually in the form of a rail which attaches to the mattress or bed frame and presents egress when in position. Often the rail assembly cannot be used with an adjustable bed since a mechanical assembly is needed to attach the rail to the mattress frame which ensures that the rail raises with the bed. Further, even when an assembly is provided, when a specific section of the bed is raised, a large gap can be created between the mattress and rail which defeats the function of the rail since the occupant may fall into the gap.
Another common problem when using an adjustable bed is the difficulty in providing a simple yet reliable mechanism for holding the foot section of the bed in a raised position. Typically, a mechanical jack or electric motor is included at the foot of the bed and acts to raise and hold that end of the mattress from the bed frame. These devices are large, heavy and slow in operation. They may also require a large number of parts and a complex arrangement for attaching the device to the bed and mattress frames.
A need exists for an adjustable bed with a patient actuated locking mechanism, a bed rail mechanism and a foot section locking device which are simple and easy to use, reliable and which may be used with a variety of different beds.